<p>My List:
1 Safety
1 Match
6 Reaches</p>
<p>Here’s my reasoning: I applied to 4 schools early, including my safety (EA), match (EA), and two reaches (one EA, one ED). Depending on the results, I would add more safeties/matches/reaches. They key is, I knew I was going to receive my results before the RD deadline. </p>
<p>Results: I was accepted into my safety and match, rejected at one reach and deferred at another reach. I was pretty happy/content with the match that I had gotten into and decided that I wouldn’t waste time/effort/money on other matches or safeties, so I applied to 4 more reaches and I got into one of those reaches! Good strategy, saved time, effort and money.</p>
<p>(The only thing I regret about the process besides not spending enough time on my apps was that I didn’t look into more schools that waived application fees.)</p>
<p>–</p>
<p>OP, 14 schools seem like a lot. Look up the early admissions policy of all your schools and definitely apply to all the schools that have EA/take a similar route to what I did.</p>